Tag Archives: Social Media

Creating Searchable Social Media Profiles

When thinking about creating your Social Media profile there are two search possibilities you will want to consider. Google search and each of your social channels are the main areas you will want to maximize for profile search-ability. After all, you want people to find you, right?

Included here I’ll share some tips on where to use keywords in your social profiles to help make it easier for you to be found.

Let’s take a look at Google Search first.

Example Google Search | Geek Mom Media

Usually, but not always, there are 3 things you can control in a Google search result for your business or website, social profiles and pages. They are the title, URL of your page and last the description.

The first thing someone sees in a search result is the title. Generally it is recommended to keep your title between 50-60 characters in length for SEO page requirements.

Your URL will appear on the second line, below the title of search results. For social channels, the URL is normally listed as the social media domain, followed by your username.

Descriptions are generally taken from the meta name “description” in your page source and are limited to 155 characters in length. The description for Geek Mom Media reads: Geek Mom Media wants to help you succeed, in your small business, by doing the geek work so you don’t’ have to. Affordable rates for home based business.

Note: Google won’t index anything that isn’t publicly viewable, that means it must be available on your public profile. You will also need to be logged out completely to see what your profile or page looks like.

Let’s take a look at some specific Social Media Networks and how to best optimize your profiles.

Facebook Page

On a Facebook Page you’ll see something like this

Example: Google Search for Ford on Facebook

Search results on Google show the Facebook Page name, Location, number of likes, and number of people talking about the page.

The first option for a search for Cars will give you any page that listed Cars as a subcategory, main brand or product category associated with the page shown in the drop-down menu. Should you press enter after your search vs reviewing the drop-down you’ll notice options for search results under the menu:

Top, Latest, People, Photos, Videos, Pages, Places, and More

Example: Search for Cars on Facebook

Tip: Local Business Owner pages will appear under Places based on proximity to the person searching and your page category. Be sure to place your keyword in the subcategory.

Key Points: Where possible include a keyword in your Page’s name and be sure to include keywords in your page’s subcategory.

Twitter Profile

Most Twitter profiles in a Google search will include your profile name, username (@username), number of followers, number of photos, videos and number of tweets. Occasionally you’ll see one that pulls the bio or lists the username (@username), URL and a couple of your latest tweets.

Example: Ford’s listing for Twitter on Google

Tip:Look to see what your profile is actually pulling from Twitter before proceeding to change your bio and including keywords.

Again, Google will rank keyword searches higher for names and @usernames that include that keyword. The example we’ve been using is “cars”

Example: Search for cars on Google

When searching on the Twitter network, profiles related to the keyword will appear in your results. They do not need to be included in the name, bio or username of the account.

Key Points: Include any keyword in your name or @username where possible if you want to appear in Google searches for that keyword. To appear in searches done via the Twitter network include those keywords in text content; it doesn’t hurt to also include it in your name , bio and @username.

Linked In

Once again, when you include a primary keyword in the Company name of your page you may rank higher in a Google and LinkedIn searches.

Key Point: Where possible include a primary keyword in your Company listed page name.

Instagram

Profile name, @username and bio are used in a Google search result.

Tip: Including primary keywords in your bio can help to increase your results.

Pinterest

Profile name and description are used in a Google search result.

Tip: Include primary keywords in your name and description can help to increase your results. Boards with primary keywords will also appear higher in search results.

Final Take Away

Knowing the general semantics of how profiles and pages work in major social networks can help your search rankings. When configuring your other Social Network accounts, use the same type of logic. In looking at Google+ and YouTube, both being optimized via Google will place higher in a Google search when a primary keyword is included in the page name or channel name. When naming uploads for YouTube include primary keywords in video names as well.

Tip: It is kind of a no-brainer, but many times it’s not possible to include a keyword in your name or username because of your specific branding needs. Including them in your bio, first paragraph and other text can help.

There is! It’s called IFTTT, and they have all kinds of recipes for Social Media Marketers!

IFTTT (IF This Then That) can help you streamline your posting, save you time; it’s almost like having an assistant! IFTTT is like a restaurant, were you have your own private chef!

Check out the Channels tab to see which Apps, Social Media Channels or other online Accounts you can connect and create recipes between , You can also connect your channels here as well as listings of popular recipes for various apps with Triggers and Actions available.

Glossary:

Channels are apps and social channels IFTTT can be configured between.

Triggers are acts that take place to start the process for your recipe.

Actions are things you program, after a trigger has taken place, to complete the desired process.

IFTTT Recipes

There are a ton of pre-made recipes to choose from or you can create your very own. Best of all it’s totally free to use this service and automate your tasks between various apps and the social media networks you use. With so many options to choose from, it is hard to put everything in one short post.

Here are the basics.

Step 1) Sign up for a free account

Step 2) Browse through existing recipes

Look through the various areas of the listings for Recommended, DO and IF recipes others have created. You may find exactly what you need here.

or

Step 3) Create your own

This is a long process, where you select IF Triggers Channels, Triggers, Trigger Fields, Then That Action Channels, Actions, Action Fields and Create your Recipe. Due to the varying possibilities for each Channel I’m not going to go into too much detail just give you a high overview of how the process works. The options you have are limited only by the selections you make from the choices available. In this example I’m using Instagram and Pinterest to create a recipe to automate posting.

To Create Your Own Recipe

1. Go to the My Recipes Tab

2. Select Create a Recipe

3. Click on the this (see image below)

4. Choose Trigger Channel

I selected Instagram. If this is the first time using IFTTT and you have not previously connected your on-line accounts, you will have to connect your Social Channel to your account, giving IFTTT permissions at this time.

5. Choose a Trigger

I selected New Photo by Specific User. Triggers available will vary depending on the channel you selected in step 4.

6. Complete Trigger Field(s)

In the item selected the trigger field is the Instagram Username.

7. Click on the that (see image below)

8. Choose Action Channel

In this example I selected Pinterest. Scroll through the options or type in the channel you are looking for.

9. Choose an Action

In my example there is only 1 action available, to post to a board. Actions available will vary depending on the channel you selected in step 8. In this example only 1 action is available for this channel (Pinterest).

10. Complete Action Field(s)

11. Create and Connect

12. Recipe ID

Your recipe has been created and is ready to use. Test it out, then publish for others to use if you desire. You can turn off any time you like. Recipes you have created or are using will show up in the My Recipe tab when signed into your account.

IFTTT helps you streamline social media tasks without the tedious steps involved. Let technology do the work for you and see what IFTTT tasks you can automate in your social media posts now and don’t forget to share your favorite recipes.

Every business should have an active presence on multiple social media channels. Learning how to manage your social media platforms should be core for focused new business owners and marketers.

Different networks can be challenging and time plays a huge factor in selecting the right management tools for your business. The correct tools can help you reply to messages; monitor your social channels, schedule posts and monitor analytics from one place.

Selecting the correct tool can be daunting when you are getting started; there are certainly plenty to choose from. I have listed some of the top user selected platforms to highlight; many have free as well as paid versions depending on the features and benefits that are important to you. Check them out and decide which works best for your needs.

“Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.” by Lori Ruff. (@loriruff)

With its high user ranking, Hootsuite gives you the ability to interact with 25 social networks from a single dashboard. A great all around tool if you’re interested in engagement, publishing and workflow features, managing campaigns and viewing analytics are other pluses.

Start your free trial with AgoraPulse if you are looking for a tool to help manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Features include; Facebook Applications, CRM Software and Analytic Reports. You can easily run contests and comparisons to your competitors. Never miss interactions with inbox media alerts.

Post to multiple social channels with Sprout Social scheduling. Pull messages into a single inbox and manage multiple profiles at the same time. Sprouts user-friendly format helps users collaborate with other team members too! Strong analytic reports include message performance, demographics data and community growth.

With Sendible you can easily manage comments and posts from Facebook, Twitter and Flickr in one place. Prioritize important mentions and analyze messages requiring attention quickly. Engage with your online community to track your social media and email messages to measure the success of your campaigns.

Are you all about monitoring your online content? Then check out Mention’s advertised “Never Miss a Thing Online” promise. Built to make sifting through online content easy, sharing quick and team collaboration simple; analyzing social data couldn’t be easier.

Have you looked through all the help files and settings on your favorite Social Media Channels? Probably not, or if you did back when you signed up there were probably so many things it was a little mind boggling.

There are really great features that you may have overlooked or were going to check out but may have forgotten about entirely.

Check them out, see which of the 30+ I’ve listed you may have forgotten about or which ones have gone entirely unnoticed.

Forgotten Facebook Features

Save links for later reading

When looking at stories in your newsfeed, you’ll find options under the drop-down menu in the upper right corner. One of these is the “Save” option, which According to Facebook, is for links, places, music, books, movies, TV shows and events. Not included are photos or plain text updates.

“Save” also shows up on pages. Select “Save Link” from the drop-down button in the upper right of the story or save a Page, for later review, by selecting “Save” from the more (“…”) option on the top right corner next to Like, Share.

To Friend or Follow?

Here’s how it works: If the person has this feature turned on you’ll see a “Follow” button to click, along with an “Add Friend” option.

Following someone means you will see their posts in your news feed, just as you would if you were friends. What’s the difference? They don’t need to accept your friend request.

Simply go to your Facebook settings, and then turn on the follow feature in your profile. From the left menu, select Followers, and change the settings from “Friends” to “Everybody”. If you need further assistance, check out Facebooks Help page.

Post to Page Timeline

Did you know others can post to your page? By tagging your name in an update these posts show up in the sidebar on your page.

Be sure to watch what is being posted, you may find customer service opportunities, be able to engage with others when someone mentions you and don’t forget to watch for spam. Who knows, you may find something you want to re-share.

Sidebar Element Order

You can rearrange the order of the sidebar elements on your page. The top spots are reserved for People and About, but other sections can be dragged and dropped into any order you choose.

The pencil icon will appear when you hover over any section in the menu.

Advanced stats for any post

Have you ever noticed the “# people reached” link at the bottom of your posts?

Have you ever clicked on it?

These insights show you all sorts of cool stats like the breakdown of likes, comments, and shares.

Other forgotten useful features

Did you know you have a Facebook eMail Address? You can email me at [email protected], and the message will come straight to my regular eMail account. Your Facebook email is your username on Facebook, plus @facebook.com.

Download a copy of your Facebook data! From your settings page, you can click the “Download a copy” link at the bottom.

Did you know you can attach a file to a Facebook Message? When you’ve got an open message window open, click on the gear icon and choose the “Add Files…” option.

Surprise Messages from Others. When clicking your message page, you’ll see the default view of your latest inbox view. Notice on the top menu “Inbox” and “Other” if there is a number beside it you have unread messages from someone on Facebook.

Do you want a specific message to appear at the top of your Business Page timeline? You can Pin a post to the top. Click the drop down arrow in the top, right corner of any of your page posts, and choose “Pin to Top.”

Forgotten Twitter Features

Creating collections via Tweetdeck

Collections are made possible using Twitter’s own Tweetdeck, a free management dashboard tool. You can create custom timelines, containing what you want to see, for multiple accounts.

Who’s in this photo?

When you add a new photo to a tweet, you can tag up to 10 people who are in the photo — and these tags won’t count against your 140 characters.

Here’s where the tagging option appears on a desktop. The feature is also on mobile.

Photo Collages and Twitter Images

You can include up to 4 images when composing a tweet. Simply click on the “Media” link to make a photo collage.

Here is a quick example of what a collage will look like:

Twitter for Mobile

You can perform certain actions, like following a user or marking a friend’s update as a favorite, by using designated Twitter commands via SMS. There are various SMS options on Twitter should you want to read more.

Here are a few popular ones:

D [username] + message — sends that person a Direct Message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.

WHOIS [username] — retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter. Example whois jack or w jack, for short.

FOLLOW [username]: allows you to start following a specific user, as well as receive SMS notifications. Example: FOLLOW jerry or F jerry for short.

Mute Feature

Should you want to manage your Twitter stream you can mute them rather than unfollowing someone. This can be helpful if you want things a bit quieter while others are participating in chats or tweet bursts.

Access from any tweet, click on the “…” (more) drop-down and choose “Mute” from the list. You can “unmute” a person, at a later time, by visiting their profile.

Pin to Tweet to Top of Profile

You can pin any tweet to the top of your Twitter feed by selecting “Pin to your profile page” from the “…” (more) link under the tweet.

Forgotten Google+ Features

Posting a G+ Poll

You can run a poll from a Google+ post. Click on the “Poll” button then ask your question in the body of the post, set multiple answers choices and add an optional photo.

Once published here is what your poll will look like.

Create an Empty Circle to save posts for future reference

Create a circle without anyone in it. This works great as a bookmarking tool or swipe file. Share posts to this empty circle then easily reference them later. All posts are added to your profile page and private, viewable only by you.

This also works great for your favorite services like Evernote or Pocket or email service. When you include your share email in the circle content saved will be automatically forwarded to you.

Linking a slideshow to your profile photo

You can control what appears when someone clicks on your profile photo. In the Photos menu, look for the Profile Photos collection, then add, edit, and arrange the photos.

Did you know you can also set a GIF as your profile or cover photo?

Forgotten Pinterest Features

Set up a secret board

Ideal for individuals planning vacations, dream weddings and surprise parties. A secret board is also great for seeding a new board before publishing for marketing purposes.

To create a secret board, click to create a new board and select secret in the options window.

Rearrange the order of your boards

You can arrange the order of your boards to your preference. Simply click and drag your boards into the order you’d like when on your profile page.

Note: The order of individual pins within a board cannot be changed.

See what has been pinned from your website (or others)

If you are interested in seeing what has been shared from your website or another website, you can type the following URL and add your domain name.

Type in: http://www.pinterest.com/source/domainname.com/.

Change the “domainname.com” to your blog’s address (or the blog address of a site you want to check).

Customize your cover images

Want your board to have a specific cover image? Click the “Edit” button at the bottom of the board then select “Change” cover. Scroll through the images and select the one you want to appear. You can even move the image around to get the best look on your board.

Collaborate with friends

When you click the Edit button at the bottom of your board, you’ll have the option to set others up as collaborators. Type in a name or email address and an email invitation will be sent. Anyone you set can then add pins directly to your group board.

Forgotten Instagram Features

Where to view Instagram photos online

You can view any user’s Instagram feed online at instagram.com/username. Also, you can see your home page feed by logging in at instagram.com.

Add a border to your image

In addition to Instagram filters, you can also add borders to your image. Via the app, choose the filter first, and then tap the filter again to reveal a box icon you can tap to add a border.

Instagram 3rd Party Helpers

How to create a collage

Have you noticed the creative collages other people post and wondered how they do that? Check out these apps which will help get your creative juices going.

See an image, photo or quote you want to repost?

Choose from your home stream or images you have favorited. Many apps have a paid version which will allow you to remove attribution overlays on the photos. Play nice and give attribution in the description using @username and hashtags where appropriate.

Bonus: LinkedIn Tips

Download a list of your connections

Download your contacts into a spreadsheet. Various formats, such as CSV are available. You’ll get a full list of your connections, including their name, current title, current company name, and email address.

Click on “Connections” on the top menu at LinkedIn, and then click the gear icon that appears in the top, right corner of your connections page. In the Advanced Settings panel select “Export LinkedIn Connections”.

Message someone you’re not connected with on LinkedIn

If you want to get in touch with someone on LinkedIn but you have yet to make the one-to-one connection, you can try this workaround. Look in their profile at the groups they belong to, and then join a common group.

Group members can message each other even without a direct connection. Locate the person in the group members section, and you’ll see an option to “Send message” in the box to the right of their photo.

Create a Relationship notes and reminders

Under each connected profile sits the option to add relationship notes — how you met, reminder notices, and other important context.

The reminder notices are a particularly helpful because you can set alerts for any contact. If you click the recurring option, you could set up a reminder to call or follow-up with the person on a weekly, monthly or custom basis. The relationship panel is private so only you see what you have set.

I’ve been around the web for many years and like many, Google has become my BFF. However, there’s always a few places I seem to end up again and again. I’ve discovered they not only publish great content, in the areas I’m interested in, but a lot of it. If you’re like me, you try to limit the time you spend going down rabbit holes looking for the next article that catches your attention. New #publishing platforms help put a lot of variety at your fingertips, it’s hard not to find things in multiple areas of interest.

So much to read and so little time to do it, I have several irons in the fire, and also wear several different hats when I’m looking for content. If you’re looking for some fresh ideas, check out the top 10 blogs & publishing sites I can’t live without! (in no specific order)

The Nectar Collective – is an online resource for bloggers and creative entrepreneurs. We offer a daily blog, design studio, and consulting services.

Social Media Examiner – the world’s largest online #social media magazine, Social Media Examiner® helps businesses discover how to best use social media, blogs and podcasts to connect with customers, drive traffic, generate awareness and increase sales.

Hub Spot – is the world’s leading inbound marketing and sales platform with 15,000 customers in more than 90 countries.

Mashable – the latest digital, social media, #business, tech, entertainment, lifestyle and world news the top resource for digital culture.

Fast Company – founded on a single premise: A global revolution was changing business, and business was changing the world.

The Lardok – (formerly The Geek Byte) publishes the latest technology news to keep you updated whats happening in the world. Personally I liked the original name better, but then I might be a little biased!

Social Media Today – a collaborative blog publishing great posts from the web’s best thinkers on social technology.

Medium – is a different kind of place on the internet. A place where the measure of success isn’t views, but viewpoints. Where the quality of the idea matters, not the author’s qualifications. A place where conversation pushes ideas forward and words still matter.

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not really a writer to begin with. I have dabbled with the idea over the years, by starting at least a dozen different journals none of which have more than a few pages completed. I have a very hard time putting my feelings & thoughts on to a piece of paper. I mean, what if someone else finds it and reads it? How embarrassing would that be? Aside from the fact that what little I have written was all penned out of either love or depression; it seems that what makes me want to scribble something down are those highs and lows. I’m in-between most of the time, well you get the picture.

Not being accomplished in #journaling, I’ve learned that blogging has been no different. So… how does one become a blogger if you can’t or don’t like to write you ask? I started reading other blogs on the subjects I wanted to cover and quickly found that most of what I want to write about has already been covered by someone else and most likely in a much better style than I would have come up with anyway. At first I thought I’d figure out how to nicely curate the information into my own words and post on my blog. You know what? That takes a ton of time, that I really don’t have!

Photo by Pixabay

That’s where the sharing comes in, I asked myself why not just help others get more exposure and in turn provide my readers with a professionally written article that probably has nice graphics too! I decided to test the theory on my new Twitter account. I quickly discovered I could just share the original article and grow my own following at the same time; spending my time locating great articles and providing a service to my followers and my niche. one stop reading from a variety of sources. I wasn’t up for re-inventing the wheel anyway! It seems to be working, in a little over 2 months I’ve been able to organically grow my account to over 600+ users looking for a single place to find the content they want to see.

A GPS Doesn’t Work Without a Destination

My original goal was to build a following of people looking for #startup, #social media and #website design information and resources. To provide my readers and followers with the most up-to-date data on what it takes to start a new #small business, build an effective website and be found on social media, so they can wisely determine where to spend their time and money.

Photo by StockSnap

Whether it’s a small family business, a new #Mompreneur or a blog dying to be written my vision is to help those individuals find a place on-line that will give them a viable alternative to doing the tech stuff themselves, so they can focus on their main objective of getting their idea off the ground. I’m still in route to my final destination and have taken a few scenic detours, but I am having a blast along the way!

In My Own Words or The Final Journey

That doesn’t mean I’ve given up on trying to come up with content for my website and blog. It just means that I’ll be a bit more selective, and strive to publish the things I feel are most important to my endeavor and fit with the niche I am carving out for myself. I really enjoy doing the geek stuff, the creative and artistic stuff whenever I can, so I’ll stick primarily to the things, I think, I do best: create startup websites, design basic social media images and make cute whiteboard and explainer videos.

Creating #visual content not only engages the readers you currently have but can actually attract more visitors. If you haven’t already, you should consider using visual content! Use this guide to learn how to #boost engagement using visual content on your blog, website and media.

In this post you’ll find some useful tactics as well as tools that are easy-to-use and will help you attract more viewers to your blog, or website.

1) Animated GIFs Are Easy to Create

Using animated GIFs can expand your marketing channels and increase the possibility of your content being picked up by major publications and other blogs.

Amy Smarty of SocialMediaExaminer.com writes “Millennials (people reaching young adulthood around the year 2000) are known as Generation GIF. If you check out publications like BuzzFeed, Gawker and Deadspin or browse the front pages of Reddit and Tumblr, you’ll see animated GIFs are everywhere.”

There are many tools available to help you create these animated GIFs. Here a few you can check out.

GIFMaker – allows you to create animated gifs, slideshows, and video animations with music online freely and easily, no registration required.

MakeGIF – lets you create animated GIFs the free and easy way. You can also use it to modify an existing GIFs. You can create from a variety of sources; YouTube videos, photos and webcam videos.

GIFS – with GIFS you can create high-quality GIFs online from YouTube videos. Simply select the portion of the video you want to turn into the GIF, you can even add captions.

Note: You can also create an animated GIFs by modifying an existing image.

2) Check out On-Hover Sharing Buttons

Adding hover social sharing icons on each image can be an effective way to encourage your reader to share your content. A simple mouseover call to action will prompt them to share more readily. It’s a surprisingly effective way to increase #engagement.

Symphony Tools – is a widget that makes it easy for your visitors to share your posts to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Tip: If you’re a Hootsuite or Buffer user adding a browser extension will enable their sharing buttons as well.

3) Reach Your Audience Through Emotion

Emotions plays a huge part in most people’s live, whether they recognize it or not. Connecting with your audience on an emotional level leaves a long-lasting impact. When something sparks an emotional response, the viewer is more likely to share, comment on and remember it.

People respond to things they see more than any other form of stimulation. Connect with your users on an emotional level and they will begin to associate those feelings with your brand. Joy, anticipation, trust and interest can invoke positive feelings and encourage sharing.

4) Find Unconventional Holidays To Celebrate

From National Freedom Day to National I Love Lucy Day (which also happens to be my birthday), uncommon holidays make celebrating hard to resist. They also make for great ideas and inspiration for visual content. They provide a source almost daily for new content!

Coca-Cola does a great job in their social media marketing with this. They have incorporated images of cute Polar bears to celebrate National Polar Bear Day.

Watch for other large corporations that do something similar, Budweiser comes to mind.

5) Ask your Readers to Participate

Encouraging your viewers to participate not only gives you additional content, but makes them feel appreciated. Everyone loves to see their work being promoted, ask them for suggestions or to provide you visuals, this can also capture their attention on your social media channels. Request photos, logs, designs or anything else they feel would help support your brand. All of the top channels in social media are great platforms for this type of campaign, try it out on your Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest feed.

Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

Caption Contest – provide a image then ask your followers to come up with a fun caption. Engage even more people by using ads.

Selfie Contest – these type of contests can be so much fun! Selfies are something most everyone can relate to now-a-days.

Think of something fun you can give them as a prize, Kenneth Cole offered fans the chance to win free shoes every month for a year. I’m not suggesting you give the store away, but find something of value you can give your winning reader for participating.

And remember to ask your readers to share your contests; the more the merrier, right!

Contests can help you build a relationship and trust with your viewers. It’s easy to trust a brand that encourages love and sharing.

6) Come up With some Interactive How-Tos

Would your readers find a interactive walk through to show how to use your product valuable? Probably So! Use an online tool like the Whatfix browser extension to help you create interactive flows in minutes.

Create an interactive walkthrough to show viewers how to use your product

7) Differentiate Content by Tailoring it to Your Audience

Identify how your audience responds to different visual content. Create different types for each social media platform to learn what resonates best. Try comics, videos, info-graphics or anything that will give you a ideas what they find appealing. Even a single image with text can be very effective.

Some more examples:

Do you have a how-to guide that could be content for a video?
Create a SlideShare of visual quotes you’ve been tweeting.
Use a how-to video as content for a instructional graphic.
Use a existing presentation and create a video or Animated GIF.

There are tons of tools on the web to help here are a few that may help and generate more ideas:

FirstSiteGuide – guidance from a collection of web geeks who believe in a web for everyone

Once you’ve gotten started with your marketing plan you’ll want to gather data and determine what gets the most engagement. Look at what the leading traffic boosting and click generating visual content leads to purchases. Check and see what others are commenting on and sharing too, look at where they share it also it may give you more insight into what is working well. You may want to start creating different content for each of your social media channels. Use the information you glean and tailor future content.

You can use analytics software like Fanplayr to help you identify patterns emerging.

In Conclusion

Visual content has a growing influence on social networks and is popular on every platform. Whether you look from Instagram or Pinterest images to Twitter and YouTube videos, viewers relate to a visual message. Boost your engagement by using what readers are looking for.

I’d love to read any feedback you may want to share. What tactics are working for you? Did you find this information useful? Feel free to share in the comments section below.

Maybe you still think it’s part of a submarine. Join the crowd! Periscope is the latest hot sensation for personal live broadcast via the internet. Many companies, public personalities and everyday folks are already avidly using this new technology.

Put simply it’s a fun way to broadcast what you are doing at the present moment from your Smartphone. Say you’re at a event and want to share what’s happening with your friends and followers or maybe you have a training session you want to share. Start your broadcast and live feed the happenings #in real-time. Anyone can join you, post comments or questions and send you love (in the form of hearts on the screen), the more they tap the screen the more love you get! Once completed your broadcast will go into replay mode and will stay active for 24 hours, after which it self-destructs.

There are most likely many more accounts than actual scoping at this point, but take heart in know that it’s fairly easy to get started and not that scary. I recommend watching a few broadcasts first to get the hang of it, them jump in and try one yourself. It’s a little intimidating to push the red button and go live, but everyone gets nervous and it will pass, just have some fun!

Put your phone in airplane mode or do not disturb before starting a broadcast. This will eliminate the possibility of ruining your broadcast should you get a call during the event.

Comments & questions can only be left during the live broadcast, A nice work around for this would be to include that others watching later during the replay they can tweet you questions or comments if needed.

Engage your audience by asking questions, for feedback and hearts is OK too. Most people love to share and express their 2 cents. Be sure to thank everyone for joining and let them know you’d love their feedback.

Discover like-minded people using Periscope by using hashtags. Various communities are already using Periscope, find them by looking through hashtags. You can also share your broadcast via #Twitter where hashtags will also be very useful.

With 15 million (yes… MILLION) users, Periscope is the place to be. Whether you are building a personal brand, have a #small business or an established #business, or simply enjoy engaging in online communities, you need to join Periscope.

I have only done one broadcast, so far, and a number of people I didn’t’ even know joined and asked questions; I even got 17 hears on #my first broadcast which was only about 4 minutes long. It really was quite fun!

#Google+ boasts over 500 million enabled accounts, of which 135 million are considered “active”. Approximately 60% of them login to their account every day. It’s a fast growing social media platform and will enhance your ability to get found locally. Because of its integration with other platforms YouTube, Gmail you can help establish your business quicker.

Carousel results get factored in for local searches differently than organic results

Google “reviews” most important factor in inclusion & ranking

Create or join Communities they will give you a place to build your network as well as a location for your customers to mingle, ask about products or give feedback.

Flexibility includes things like circles, which can help you brand yourself more closely by filtering your posts to a specific target audience. The ability to host Hangouts gives you a place to be face-to-face with your followers and customers.

Suggestions & Tips

Unlike many other #social media platforms, G+ has a specific place for you to add other social media links in your profile, take advantage of that! Make certain you include a photo of yourself in your profile, put a face to your name.

You can add hyperlinks to your profile text, for example create backlinks to some of your website pages. Be sure not to over stuff your profile with keywords or Google may penalize you. Sharing other people’s posts will also create backlinks to your profile, so share, comment & +1 posts you find helpful. Engage with others and they will start engaging with you. Remember to connect & verify your website to your page.

Some useful tips

When adding people to your circles, many will add you back, so search for like-minded companies and individuals to get your following started.

Did you know that posts with a photo get 5% more clicks? Add photos whenever you can.

Research and use hashtags, when creating your post suggestions will come up as you start typing.

G+ is also one of the few SM platforms that allows you to use animated GIF If your audience likes them, go for it!

If you are using a WordPress platform for your blog and have an automatic social sharing plugin, you will need to give it authorization to post updates to your G+ account, check in account settings.

Pinterest is the last of the major Social Media sites that many business have a presence on, that I will cover in this series. With 270 Million unique users each month it is a great place to post visual content to reach your target audience. Approximately 85% of the users on Pinterest are female, with 42% being adult females. If that is your target market, it’s a great place to be! It’s very easy to setup and use for posting visual content.

There are both personal and business accounts available on Pinterest and you can actually have both if you prefer. Should you choose to simplify and already have a personal account you can request to have it converted to a business account, or they may actually send you an invitation by email. The primary difference between the accounts is Analytics and Rich Pins. I won’t go into detail here about rich pins, you can read more in the help section on Pinterest, but they offer more options with your pins.

After creating your account you’ll want to create “boards”, where each would have a different keyword focus. You can however pin one image to multiple boards if that is something that makes sense. Some of the more popular topics and boards on Pinterest are how-to-guides, DIY crafts and recipes. Boards are also a great place to get ideas for your own content and insight into what people are interested in. Build connection and relationships over shared interests through the multiple boards you have or you visit. Learn what inspires people and gain insight into the things you can share. Pinterest makes it easy to engage with your customers, clients & friends through a variety of topics like hobbies, crafts, DIY, cookery, interiors, beauty and fashion.

Tips, Tricks & Suggestions

As with all #Social Media channels make sure you complete your profile and the profile header for each board you create, this will help showcase your personality. Don’t forget to include your website and complete the verification process where possible. I would suggest taking some time to research various boards by reviewing what your friends and industry are doing to get ideas of how you would like to organize your pins. This is flexible and changeable so you don’t need to spend a lot of time, just enough to get some ideas on how you want to proceed. Engage with other users by commenting, liking or sharing relevant pins to your own boards, others will begin to reciprocate

When designing your website or blog, make certain you include plenty of images and a “pin it button” so others can easily share what they like. This will also create back-links from Pinterest to your site and help drive more traffic to your site. Statistics have shown that product images pinned with a price are more effective and have a better click through rates. Be sure to include a Call To Action in the description if applicable too!

Remember: When pinning a image you can edit the link information to redirect to your website if needed.

If you’d like to see what people are pinning from a specific website or from your website or blog you can easily find this information by entering the following: